CA1045327A

CA1045327A - Device for the assembling of screening sections

Info

Publication number: CA1045327A
Application number: CA238,349A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Johannes Kuhn
Original assignee: V G S GmbH
Current assignee: V G S GmbH
Priority date: 1974-10-23
Filing date: 1975-10-23
Publication date: 1979-01-02
Also published as: JPS5164731A; NL7512456A; IT1046867B; LU73622A1; GB1528464A; DE2546754A1; US4070838A

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A clip for assembling panels which comprises a body having an elongated cross section which is symmetrical about a longitudi-nal axis of symmetry and a lateral axis of symmetry. The body has a pair of axial slots at opposite ends of the cross section which extend inwardly of the body along the longitudinal axis of symmetry. Two pair of grooves are each disposed symmetrically about a respective one of the axial slots and extend into the body generally along a longitudinal dimension of the body cross section, and the grooves open adjacent the respective one of the axial slots on opposite sides thereof. Each of the grooves have facing inner sidewalls which include portions protruding inwardly for retaining a portion of a clip support inserted therein. The clip body also has a pair of opposed lateral channels disposed symmetrically on opposite aides of the longi-tudinal axis of symmetry and having a width extending longitu-dinally of the body cross section symmetrically about the lateral axis of symmetry. Each of the lateral channels have a pair of walls having facing surfaces which protrude inwardly for retaining a clip support inserted therein. In use, clip supports are fixed to panels, and the clips engage and retain the clip supports to fasten the panels together.

Description

;;3~'7 The invention conoerns a clip for the assembling of screening sections on panels.
If keys or plastic connecting clips used for assembling - screens made of opaque or glazed sections, and of metal sestions ~ixed to the opaque units or forming grooves for said glazed - sections, are used with or without cleats, different kinds of ~ metal fastening, etc., the design of the keys or clips currently ;~ known limits their uses and it has always been necessary up to now to make provision ~or the use of several types or to leave ; 10 uprights showing which, from the aesthetic viewpoint is not pleasing, particularly with glazed sections or with T-shaped or .:
L-shaped combinations of sections.
There is an obvious bene~it in using the same type of clips or keys in all instances in that only one type would need to be stocked; and this can be realized by the present inven-tion. Furthermore, according to the invention, the new clip : ,.
~; makes it possible to obtain acoustical and other insulation by 1 the addition of seals, and a self-supporting central panel, -~ thus avoiding the contact of metal on metal and providing the ~ ~ .
complete blanking out o~ heat and noise.

In accordance with the invention, a clip ~or assem-, ., bling opaque or possibly glazed screens and metal sections ~ixed to opaque sections or forming grooves for said glazed sections, -`~1 the clip comprises a body having an elongated cross section and .. . .
; having at each end an axial slot capable of receiving and sup- ;

porting the internal rib o~ a batten or a glazing bead~ On i~
~i both sides of its two axial slots and arranged symmetrically, ; ,. .
i the clip has a groove capable of receiving the corresponding `, end o~ a stop or seal, and which in an arrangement of opposed ~' 30 pairs, are capable of receiving and holding or o~ inserting -!', themselves into and holding themselves in or on the two ends of the butts or on the two corresponding inside brackets of a 3~
.~.. .~. ., clip support, section, frame support o~ a glazed unit, door frame, angled and/or connecting or fi~ing corner. Moreover, . ., the clip is prefera~ly provided, on each of its sides, wi~h a lateral channel to receive and to hold the butts, inside brackets of a clip support, section, frame support of a glazed unit, door frame, angled and/or connecting or fixing corner.
The object of the invention is to provide a new clip, ;; however, it also embraces the di~ferent types of screen combina-;~: tions which are possible from a consideration of one or all the ;~ 10 characteristics which it embodies i, . , .:
~ In order to facilitate a better understanding of the ,, invention and to bring out its benefits and characteristics, ; , it will now be described in a manner which is intended to be .,.~,..
:~ ezemplary and not restrictive The description relates to the '~ attached drawings which show:-~L~.`''.'~ Fig. 1 a plan view of the new clip , ,~.` , ..
Fig. 2 a partial and enlarged plan view of the clip - shown in fig. 1 and gripping the base of a c,"l" stoP.
.,,,,: :
~;} 20 Fig. 3 a partial and enlarged plan view of the clip shown in fig. l.and gripping the base o~ an air seal.
Fig. 4 a partial and enlarged plan view of the clip shown in fig. 1 and gripping a ~etal riser section in accordance with one configuration Fig. 5 A partial and enlarged plan view of the clip .-shown in fig. 1 and gripping a metal riser . section in accordance with a second configu-" ;,. - . .
; ~ ration.

,.b',`"~ 30 Fig. 6 a partial and enlarged plan view of the clip -: ~ .i "
shown in fig. 1 holding a clip support or ~;; intermediate part fixed to a cleat.
~ , ~
, ., - _2 ,';; ': ~, 3~7 .. ~ Fig. 7 a partial and enlarged plan view OI the clip ~ shown in fig. l and holding a clip support :~ or intermediate part fixed to a self-supporting -.. ~...................................................................... . .
. ~ .
. central panel.

- Fig. 8 a partial plan view of clips which are iden-: .
. i~ .
tical to the clip shown in fig. l and fixed to an angle connection in accordance with one ~' configuration.
Fig. 9. a partial plan view of clips which are iden-: 10 tical to the clip shown in fig. l and fixed to an angle connection in accordance with a t~ ~" second configuration.
vl Fig. lO a ge~eral view o~ a set of screens or the ~ire-proof type.
With regard to the various drawings, -fig 1 illustrates --~ the clip according to the invention whi~h at each of its longi !~ tudinal ends has an axial slot 2 which holds the rib 3 o:E a bat-ten or a glazing bead, 4, 4'. On opposite sides of said slot are a pair of grooves 5 provided with two notches 6 which could be replaced, for example, by serrations or ridges. The clip 1 is moreover also preferably equipped with two lateral slots 7 which are themselves provided with two notches 8 which could be replaced by serrations or ridges. Thus, different methods are ~`
YI provided for attaching various section and/or other parts to the clip l which is made preferably of a plastic material such as ~ -~i~ polyamide, as are a few accessories, in order to achieve acous~
~-' tical and thermal insulation. TherP now ~ollows a description : ,'. . .. .
.~; of some of these possibilities. ~ -A groove 5 (fig. 2) can, because of the retaining ~;~
notches 6, be used to hold and retain the end 9 o~ a stop 10, the lateral ~ace ll of which makes it possible to wedge an opa-que or glazed soreening unit 12. The enlarged entrance 13 of the ~.. j ,i ,. ...
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3~7 .: groove 5 is also used, for example (~igs. 2, 3 and 5), to recei-.~ ve the butt 14 of a U-shaped section 15 (fig 1), 16 (figs. 3 . ~. . .
and 5) capping the entire width of the clip 1 (fig. 5) A

bracket 17 on section 15 (~ig. 1) makes it possible to wedge a ; section of screening 12 which can be fitted with a seal lg and ;.~ a seal 19 held by a groove 20 provided at the glazing bead.
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;.; In another arrangement (fig. 3), although the enlarged ;~
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part of the groove 5 is partially filled by the butt 14 of a section 16, it is still possible to make provision ~or the .. ~
groove to receive the end 21 o~ a seal 22 which acts as a sup-port for supporting opaque or glazed screening ~embers 12. The `
assembly can be perfected by the provision of another joint 23 .
made of an absorba~t material and held or stuck to the glazing , ,, :
:~ bead 4 -:.~j'l It will be noticed, in referring to the left-hand side of fig. 1, that the entire groove 5 is utilised and is una-;~ ble to receive the butt 14 of a section 15 or 16 Nevertheless, the clip is still effective since in this present case it is not possible to utilise the lateral groove 7 and the retaining not-. j ~; . .
ches 8 with which it is provided. In this manner it is possible .- to engage th~ clip 1 (fig. 4) on a section 24, the butts Z5 engaging on the retainlng notches 8 or, if possible, to make provision for the clip 1 to engage the U-shaped section 15 at .
two points (fig. 2, right-hand side), viz. by its butt 14 on the enlarged part of the clip 1 and by its butt 25 : The grooves 5 as well as the slots 7 in the clip 1 can be used for purposes other than that o~ engaging on, or i .
~ being engaged by sections 15, 16,25 and seals 22 or stops 10 . ,,:,, , which are the various parts necessary to improve the acoustical : .
-~ 30 or thermal insulation with or without seals 19 and 23, assuring a perfect fit for glazed as well as opaque screening units 12 without -the necessity of providing large dimensioned glazing . . .

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4~3~7 ~ beads or, in the case of glazed screeni~g, o~ leaving connecting - ~ parts visible. Such beneficial characteristics will be seen in ; the followil~g assemblies.
`i` To this end, panel sections 26 (fig. 7) can receive -` between them a third panel 27 which is ~ixed on its side by ` ~ U-shaped pieces 28 which receive the clips 1, U-shaped pieces 28 with butts 29 engaging in the grooves 5 of clips 1. Like the clips, these pieces are made of a plastic material such as po-;,.: , ,, ; lyamide. Thus it is possible to make a screen which is comple-tely self-supporting or even to provide, in place of a third ." ~ ..
~: panel 27, an upright (not shown) which is fastened to the ~loor i,~, ~ or held between the ~loor and the ceiling by a jack fixture and ~ j,/,;
: then to fix the U-shaped 28 to said upright In another version (see fig. 6) the pieces 28 are fixed ` on cleats 30 which keep the panels 26 apart. Clip 1 can also be `
i used for an angled assembly of screening elements, either T-shaped ~; or L-shaped or even X-shaped (figs. 8 and 9) which can be achie-l ved by an assembly of two cleats 30 on which are fixed pieces 28 ;l for receiving the clips 1 in the same manner as described above with reference to figs 6 and 7 or by providing a special support - ~ 31 (~ig 9) having ribs 32 which engage with the retaining notches 8 of slots 7 on clips 1. The support 31 could be made by moulding.
For an L-shaped assembly, only one of the two paral-lel clips holding the screen sections is used, ~hree for a ~r T-shaped assembly. For an X-shaped assembly additional ribs 32 are provided on support 31 or a third cleat 30 is provided in ~,~l parallel with another, and fourth clip is mounted thereon.
,'1'. :! ., ~Moreover, there are special battens (not illustrated) which close the faces where no screen section is connected and larger glazing beads can be provided to fit into the clips positioned in parallel.
; The clip thus described is there~ore particularly ;~
.

3~7 :
useful since it meets all the requiremenks of assembling opaque or glazed screen sections iD parallel in such configurations ,.~ ;
as T, L or X by including for example the supports of door frames and posts. In effect, the sections 15, 16 and 24 can be supports ! .
or posts or parts of the same, the fastening of the clip 1 being either direct or by means of a part 28 or even a second inter-mediate piece situated between part 28 and the support or post, `
whilst at the same time preserving the advantages mentioned above.
The shape of the clip 1 illustrated in the attached drawing could be difPerent, the groove 7 being proportionally wider so as to increase the support ~aces 33 (fig. 1) of the :t `
s clip 1, parallel to its centre line, for the purpose of increa- `~
sing the str~ngth o~ the clip and of the assemblies made.
` It must also be noted that the middle slots 7 of the - clip 1 can facilitat~ the positioning of a pane of screening, whether it be a single, triple or even double pane unit; or they may serve, for example, to support a glazing bead.
It can therefore be seen that the number of possible .~l 20 different configurations which can be reali~ed by the new clip .; are considerable, providing for example for screens which, though they can always be taken down, nevertheless go to make up a wall which remains fireproof for a relatively long period of time -~
(fig 10), whereas previously, in order to achieve the same ``
;::J.
effect, it was necessary to use such materials as asbestos ce~
.~, .
ment both for the screen and for covering the batten and the main edge faces of the screen sections. Such a process was com- ;
~:~ ple~, expensive and gave rise to a significant protrusion. Or alternatively the fire-proof screens could not be taken down, - 30 their component parts bei~g fixed to post5 which were generally ., of metal and fastened to the floor.
; Fig. 10 shows a solution to such a problem by the use : ~, .," . `
;~'"'' i3~7 of the clip 1 which is provided laterally with parts 28 which are ~ixed for example by means o~ screws to cleats 30 intersec-s ting screen sections 34 ma~e of flame-proof material. Said ,., :.
sections 34 are pre~erably o~-set towards the rear in relation to the cleats 30. In the gap between two consecutive sections 34, a strip 35 is placed which is also made of fire-proo~ ma-terial and which has on the inside a rib 36 which in the example illustrated is a standard batten 4 which is for example fixed by means of screws 37 to said strip 35 which fills the entire :r;; 10 space between the screen sections 34. In this case it is suf-ficient to provide batten sections 4 at those points where clips 1 are situated.
In order to perfect the system, provision is made ~or the cleats 30 to be supplied laterally with an insulating strip ..... , . :
~ 38 in order to remove any danger of a possible gap occurring i,!,,,, between the strip 35 and the sections 34 of the screen. Another ,-',f, possible solution, which is not illustrated, consists in provi-~i~ ding a cut-out along the edge of two consecutive sections 34 , . , ~
so as to obtain a tongue similar to the insulating strip 38 ~ ::
It is interesting to observe that the thickness of the strip 35 can be varied in such a way that, from the outside, the strip ,.. ~ .
35 and the consecutive sections of screening 34 are flush.
Since the strip 35 could be made of the same material as the sections 34, it would be barely visible.
Apart, therefore) from the fact that the same clip 1 ` can be used in all instances in the assembling of screening ... .
; sections, it also has many advantages in that it reduces the number of sections used. In ef~ect, it is possible to fix the ` -~
clip directly on to a support post and conversely, to fix the 30 post supports straight on to the clip, whereas previously the . ~:;. . ..
clips were iixed on to sel~-supporting posts to which were ~ixed the sections which were themselves ~ixed finally to the supports. `

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.~~ This required a considerable amount of labour as well as the i`'. manufacturing of sections which have become superfluous. In . .
. addition, there was the necessity of providing very wide battens.
From the acoustical point o~ view9 besides the possi-~,. bilities of being able tc make provision to fix seals in the - manner indicated, a particularly beneficial solution to the problem is afforded by the use of a central self-supporting .. screen which acts as a section to carry the clips 1.
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Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclu-sive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A clip comprising: a body having an elongated cross section symmetrical about a longitudinal axis of symmetry and a lateral axis of symmetry; said body having a pair of axial slots at opposite ends of the cross section and exten-ding inwardly of the body along the longitudinal axis of sym-metry; said body having two pairs of grooves each disposed symmetrically about a respective one of the axial slots and extending into the body generally along a longitudinal dimension of the body cross section and opening adjacent the respective one of the axial slots on opposite sides thereof, each of said grooves having facing inner side walls defining means for re-taining, and said body having a pair of opposed lateral channels disposed symmetrically on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of symmetry and having a width extending longitudinally of said body cross section symmetrically about the lateral axis of symmetry, each of the lateral channels having a pair of walls having facing surfaces defining means for retaining.

2. A clip according to claim 1, wherein: each of said grooves includes a pair of opposed facing side walls gene-rally extending along the longitudinal dimension of said cross section, said pair of opposed facing side walls having a distan-ce therebetween defining a width dimension of the groove, the pair of opposed facing side walls having portions converging toward each other to define a narrow width portion of the groove and the converging portions of the opposed facing side walls defining means for retaining.

3. A clip according to claim 1, wherein: each of said lateral channels includes a pair of opposed facing side walls generally extending along the transverse dimension of said cross section; said pair of opposed facing side walls having a distance therebetween defining a width dimension of the channel, the pair of opposed facing side walls having por-tions converging toward each other to define a narrow width portion of the channel and the converging portions of the op-posed facing side walls defining means for retaining.

4. A clip according to claim 1, wherein the axial slots are defined by opposed corrugated surfaces.

5. A clip according to claim 1, wherein ends of the clip have at least two side surfaces angled, one towards the longitudinal axis of the clip, the other in the opposite direc-tion.

6. A clip according to claim 1, having at least two supporting faces which are parallel to the longitudinal axis of the clip and which are situated on either side of the late-ral channels.

7. A clip according to claim 1, in combination with a clip support having a U-shaped section and provided on an inside face whose shape is complementary to that of the grooves of the clip for engaging therewith and being retained thereby.

8. A clip and clip support in accordance with claim 7, wherein the clip support is made of a plastic material.

9. In combination, a panel; a clip support fixed to said panel; and a clip for engaging said clip support; wherein said clip comprises a body having an elongated cross section symmetrical about a longitudinal axis of symmetry and a lateral axis of symmetry; said body having a pair of axial slots at opposite ends of the cross section and extending inwardly of the body along the longitudinal axis of symmetry, said body having two pairs of grooves each disposed symmetrically about a respective one of the axial slots and extending into the body generally along a longitudinal dimension of the body cross sec-tion and opening adjacent the respective one of the axial slots on opposite sides thereof, each of said grooves having facing inner side walls defining means for retaining, and said body having a pair of opposed lateral channels disposed symmetrically on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of symmetry and having a width extending longitudinally of said body cross section symmetrically about the lateral axis of symmetry, each of the lateral channels having a pair of walls having facing surfaces defining means for retaining; and wherein said clip support comprises a body having a U-shaped section having an inner face complementary to the grooves of the clip for enga-ging therewith and being retained thereby.

10. A combination in accordance with claim 9, wherein the panel includes an inner support for strengthening the panel, and the clip support is fixed to the inner member.

11. A device for assembling screens or bulkheads in accordance with claim 10, characterised in that the inner mem-ber is an intermediate pannel which may, or may not, be self-supporting.

12. A combination in accordance with claim 9, com-prising cleats assembled in a 'T' configuration, a clip sup-port fixed on each of the cleats, and clips which are supported by respective ones of the clip supports so as to form an angled assembly comprising at least two clips positioned at an angle to one another.